Initial experiments completed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity show that Martian soil’s minerals are similar to those in weathered volcanic-origin basaltic soils in Hawaii, NASA reported. Curiosity recently ingested the first sample of the Red Planet’s soil. The rover used its Chemistry and Mineralogy tool (CheMin) to study the sample. The results obtained “provide refined and in some cases new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars,” a NASA researcher said. Identification of minerals in rocks and soil is a key activity for the mission to assess past environmental conditions on Mars, NASA said. Voice of Russia, RIA, Source: Voice of Russia
